Calculating and interpreting Cronbach's alpha using Rosenberg assessment scale on paediatrician's attitude and perception on self esteem

Abstract

Background: Items used in a questionnaire should have internal consistency, which reflects its reliability. The most common and useful measure for internal consistency is cronbach’s alpha. Though it is the most widely used tool in qualitative medical research, it is also the most commonly misunderstood statistic. A misinterpreted cronbach’s alpha may lead to the question about the reliability of an item or scale. So this study has been undertaken with an objective of calculating and interpreting cronbach’s alpha for evaluation of the internal consistency of items by using Rosenberg Assessment Scale (RAS) on attitude and perception of paediatricians’ about self-esteem. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was done in bhubaneswar during a CME. Responses of 50 paediatricians were taken by close ended, pretested RAS. Results: The result of the reliability measure was good: α=0.724 in our study that means all the items in our survey were internally consistent and reliable to assess the attitude and perception of paediatricians. Conclusions: It was concluded that measure of internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha (α) was easy to calculate, had a direct interpretation & less time consuming .